3 Review(s)

Like Capital, this is the author’s life work. He shows how the philosophers from Locke to Hegel have assumed the permanence and immutability of capitalism and takes issue with its apologists from Malthus to Hayek, exposing their special pleading with masterly scorn. He explains the destructive consequences of global capitalism from chronic unemployment to massive indebtedness and the necessity for armaments production. As with Capital, the author’s commitment and concern for the exploited shines through. The Review of Metaphysics stressed it about an earlier work, Marx’s Theory of Alienation, commenting: ‘In the hands of a creative thinker, conviction and passion can give wings to the freedom struggle. Mészáros’s book is a “Winger” — one of the most far-reaching books on the subject of Marx’s theory of alienation since Lukács’s seminal History and Class Consciousness!’